This weekend, the New Orleans Superdome will host the NCAA Final Four for the sixth time in its history, and the third time since the start of the new millennium. It is in particular in this stadium full of history that a certain Carmelo Anthony guided his university of Syracuse towards the national title. It was in April 2003, at the end of an exceptional freshman season. A look back at a magical year for Melo.
Georgia Tech? Villanova? North Carolina? Syracuse? In 2002, during his last season in high school under the colors of the famous Oak Hill Academy, Carmelo Anthony was on the shelves of many universities and inevitably asked questions regarding his future. At the time, Melo was considered gifted with the orange ball, so much so that he was one of those capable of immediately making the leap to the NBA. However, Anthony does not intend to follow in the footsteps of Kevin Garnett or Kobe Bryant, his mother Mary insisting that he go through the box university. And in the end, Syracuse wins the day. Coach Jim Boeheim had moved a year earlier to Baltimore when Carmelo was still playing in the shadows at Towson Catholic High School. A significant meeting for the Syracuse coach but also for the 17-year-old nugget. The first was impressed by the great qualities of the second, and the second was touched by the interest of the first. So it was that Melo made a premature commitment to New York University on May 29, 2001 – his birthday – before sticking with his choice despite pressure from a number of more prestigious programs. The departure of Syracuse winger Preston Shumpert is the final element that ends up convincing Anthony 100%, he who understands that he will have many opportunities to shine from his freshman campaign.
And good god it’s going to shine.
His very first match with Syracuse? 40 minutes of play, 27 points, 11 rebounds, all at Madison Square Garden in New York. Difficult to do better for his great debut. Certainly Melo tastes defeat once morest Memphis that day, but he has just given a great glimpse of his talent. And very quickly, this talent will allow his team to take off to really climb in the hierarchy of university basketball. During the regular season, Anthony is averaging an impressive 22.2 points and 10 rebounds in over 36 minutes of play (leading the team in each of those stat categories) as Syracuse strings of wins. Melo and his friends line up no less than eleven consecutive successes following the loss of the opening match and finish with a superb record of 23 wins in 27 games, including a perfect 17-0 at home. Well-ranked teams like Missouri, Pittsburgh and Notre Dame notably fell to Syracuse, which then took eleventh place in the national rankings when Jim Boeheim’s group was not even ranked among the top 25 teams in the country at the start of the season. . This is called the Melo effect. However, if we don’t know yet, the best is yet to come.
“We were a good team but I didn’t think we were going to be as good. Finishing with a 17-0 record at home, I’ve never lost in the Carrier Dome. People don’t talk regarding that enough. It’s hard to do. And that was at a time when the Big East Conference was really strong. »
– Carmelo Anthony, South All The Smoke
At the time, it was very rare to see first-year players like Carmelo Anthony have such an impact on their team’s success, let alone become its leader. We are in an era where a certain number of prodigies decide to skip the NCAA box to go directly to the NBA (Kobe Bryant, Jermaine O’Neal, Kevin Garnett, Tracy McGrady, Amar’e Stoudemire), and where the best high school students integrate prestigious programs for several years, often with more limited roles in their first season. We are before the rule of one-and-done set up by the NBA in 2005, before the era of five-star freshmen who landed just for a college year before flying off to the Big League. But Melo is an exception. As March Madness progresses, Anthony raises his level of play even further. First, he scored 20 points and 10 rebounds once morest Oklahoma in the Elite Eight to qualify Syracuse to the Final Four in New Orleans. And then, Carmelo will clearly show that he evolves on another planet than the competition: once morest Texas and its excellent defender Royal Ivey, he produced a real masterclass with 33 points and 14 rebounds in the semi-final, before multiplying in the title match once morest Kansas. 20 points, 10 rebounds, 7 assists, all without having managed to sleep the night before, hello monster. Under the leadership of Anthony, and also thanks to the great contribution of the other freshman Gerry McNamara as well as the very clutch block of Hakim Warrick, Syracuse manages to reach the end by winning 81-78. Never had the university won a single title before, never had coach Jim Boeheim lifted the champion’s trophy.
“I had seen Melo before the game. He was very excited, but he wasn’t nervous at all, which is rare for a freshman. He told me not to worry, he said ‘coach, we’ll do it’. »
– Jim Boeheim
LLogically named MOP of the Final Four, Carmelo Anthony is at the top. He has just achieved a monumental feat and he is so thrilled that it is difficult for him to come back down. After the final victory, while the NBA opens the doors wide for him, Melo does not want to put an end to his magnificent university adventure. On the contrary, he wants to prolong the pleasure, aware that he can never go back to rediscover this necessarily very special atmosphere. Except he’s too strong, too talented, too formidable offensively not to go upstairsJim Boeheim doing what is necessary to make him understand that the time has come to turn pro. So in the company of the phenomenon LeBron James, Dwyane Wade or even Chris Bosh, Carmelo Anthony will appear in the 2003 NBA Draft. And the rest, we know it.
If Melo is likely to be one of those legends who does not have the slightest NBA champion ring on his finger, what he did before arriving in the Big League is quite simply one of the greatest exploits of the history of college basketball. And it will definitely go down as a highlight of his Hall of Famer career.
